Westside Steve Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 The Kids Are All Right Focus R 103 min Here’s another of the lesser-known best picture nominees. It’s a long shot, to be sure, but there are two reasons it even made it to the bloated list. First the stars Annette Bening (Nic) and Julianne Moore (Julie) are highly respected actresses. Secondly someone wants to make a political statement. It’s not an unheard of idea from Hollywood (see Michael Moore or Al Gore) and the purpose of this is to paint a sympathetic picture of gay marriage and family. Fair enough. Lest you think I’m some sort of right wing zealot; I’m not. I have no beef with gay marriage and figure that any kind of love that gets you through your life is fine with me. The movie just isn’t very good and it’s the least deserving of the ten to have been nominated. It’s billed as a “smart sexy comedy” and it falls short on every count. Nic and Julie have a family, a teenage boy and girl, via a sperm donor. The kids track down donor Paul (Mark Ruffalo), an attractive but somewhat dim organic gardener who becomes a part of the extended family. This doesn’t sit well with Nic and she becomes even less happy about the addition when he and her partner Julie has an affair. Aside from the lesbian factor there’s not much about any of the characters that rises above cliché especially the whining self absorbed children. If there is a moral gripe at all I’d say that any parents should at least try harder to be discreet about their lovemaking, especially those episodes that include pornography, but again that’s not why I didn’t like it. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT merely suffers from a dearth of humor empathy and charisma. C- WSS email westsidesteve@aol.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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